Since its release, XBMC has completely changed the way we consume media through our devices. Originally standing for Xbox Media Center, this software media player has come a long way and the developers think it’s time for a name change – a name change to Kodi.

Team XBMC has written a detailed post on their blog, discussing the circumstances leading to this decision as well as on how it will affect the users. The most important cause is that the name simply didn’t make sense anymore.Though initially brought for Xbox, XBMC hardly works on hacked Xboxes now and has never run on the new Xbox 360 and Xbox one.

Also XBMC now runs addons, games and streams content than just videos, turning itself into an entertainment center rather than a media center.

In essence both the “XB” and “MC” simply don’t make a whole lot of sense any more.

Another reason cited by the team is the legal issues concerning the fact that their name XBMC is derived from Xbox which is a trademark of Microsoft. Though they have never faced any legal actions against this, it largely restricted the usage of the name. Also:

In the past few years, we have seen the mass confusion that resulted from this lack of control first hand. Users have been fooled into wasting money buying boxes running hacked and typically broken versions of XBMC. News sites and blogs have gotten caught in confusing language numerous times. Unrelated fan communities, often founded under the best of intentions, have found themselves under attack, simply because no guidelines existed to simplify the process of clearly distinguishing themselves from the XBMC Foundation

Hence, the devs decided to change XBMC to Kodi Entertainment Center. About the term Kodi and how the team came up with it – you can read that here.

Surprisingly, this is not the first time this has happened. In fact, XBMC has had three name changes since its release in 2002. But the team promises that Kodi will be the final one.

Kodi will take over the XBMC title staring with the next major release, Kodi 14. Team Kodi has also confirmed that the renaming won’t cause any difference to an average user and that they are neither selling out nor partnering with any other companies in the process.

Getting the most out of XBMC on your Apple TV is a difficult thing to do. Whether watching the latest movies, looking to stream last nights TV episodes, listening to music on Pandora, or playing video games on your Apple TV 1 or Apple TV2, XBMC has the ability to handle the job. But wait, there’s more! What most people tend to overlook is that XBMC goes far beyond a stand alone media center. With this software installed you can use your Apple TV as a social media hub, a torrent controller, a Nintendo gaming console, or even the front end of an NZB client.

Though all these things can be added to your Apple TV with relative ease, almost nobody takes advantage of these features because it is located in a section that is often overlooked. The Programs category, within XBMC, is a treasure trove of software waiting to expand and multiply the level of enjoyment you get out of your little black box.

Most of these tools are available to you within the official XBMC repo. This comes preinstalled when you put XBMC on your Apple TV, meaning you need only go to the appropriate section and choose “Get More!” If you want even more, you can find countless others, and support for these add ons, by visiting forums.xbmc.org, as well as checking out the Fusion Installer from XBMC HUB. Below I am providing a somewhat-complete list of program add-ons. Simply read through the list below and see if anything grabs your attention. If it does, install and enjoy!

IceFilmsXBMC addon has been recently updated to version 1.1.12 that fixes minus.com resolver for metadata zips, adds ShareBees user login support (does not detect free user vs premium as of now), fixes JumboFile and ShareBees resolver for site changes, updates VidHog resolver to check for ‘server in maintenance mode’ msgs and disables ‘Video Seeking’ option (not needed for current sources and has been causing problems).

Note that you need a free account at ShareBees to be able to download their larger files.

Wondering how to watch live sport streaming on Apple TV?The answer is easy: XBMC, AirPlay, Mac/PC screen mirroring and, of course, native Apple TV sport apps. Finding football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, UFC, WWF, or anything else on your Apple TV can feel like and impossible task to anyone one who sits down and sees the limited options in Apple iOS interface, with its limited content partnerships. Though it looks bleak there is a very bright cloud to this quandary and that is the never-ending combination of features we can through at this magical little box.

XBMC

If you have read any of my other pieces, you already know that I am an XBMC fan-boy. XBMC is the best thing to happen to the Apple TV for many reasons, the least of which being its ability to stream live sports content. There are many addons that can be found at forums.xbmc.org to fill your gaming needs! Here is a list of the most popular, stable tools:

SportsDevil

This is easily one of the more popular, and better-known, add-ons when it comes to sports and XBMC. This add-on is great because it works 95% of the time. I have only ever missed one college game with SportsDevil. This add-on is free and there is no charge for connecting to the streams it makes available.

This is another great source for sporting content. The truth is, if you want to view a LIVE TV event… one of your best bets would be to view it via this Live TV add-on. With in this add-on you are able to choose different categories of TV, specifically Sports. You are then given a large list of links for currently streaming sports channels: ESPN, CBS, NBC, etc. And again… this add-on is free to use.

Navi-X is one of the best tools, yet sometimes tricky to utilize. This add-on often has more links than any other source out there for LIVE streaming TV and specifically SPORTS. The trick is finding them. If you are unfamiliar with Navi-X you will simply want to use the search feature found on the main screen. Otherwise, often you can scroll through the MOST POPULAR OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS and you will see all of the Live Sports Streams posted on this page.

Check out this tutorial to learn how to install XBMC addons on Apple TV (1st and 2nd generation).

AirPlay

If XBMC is the best thing to happen to the apple TV, AirPlay is certainly the second best! Quite often you can find the game you want on apps that are available in the AppStore for you iOS device (iPhone, iPod, iPad). With these apps, or perhaps a webpage link, you are able to AirPlay content from your mobile device’s screen to your Apple TV, or even XBMC on your Apple TV, without skipping a beat.

Justin.TV is a long time king of live sports streams. Though this app can be more hit and miss than its XBMC counterparts, it does often have what you are looking for. Simply download the app, search for the game, and choose the AirPlay option to through the video to your Apple TV.

Get CBS Sports for iPhone! The app delivers comprehensive news, video and scores for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Golf, Tennis, NASCAR, College hoops and more. Follow your favorite team and sport, and catch up on the latest news, scores, stats and video highlights of the day. Plus, the app offers live streaming College Basketball and Football

TO MANY TO COUNT (iOS)

To be fair, when it comes to the ability to AirPlay there is a limitless number of options that are available in the form of the AppStore apps. For this reason, here is a link to the AppStore offering all of the apps labeled “sports”.

Android

Though Android devices do not have the iOS 5 feature of AirPlay built in, XBMC does! With this remote installed on your mobile device, you can send any “ONLINE” video content to your XBMC installation on your Apple TV. This is true AirPlay functionality with out the name, or the help of Apple.

We all know we can watch live sports online, but sometimes it’s a right mission to get to where you want to go or find a good link to watch live sports right on the Apple TV. Well, this is where SportsDevil, an XBMCaddon, comes into its own!

SportsDevil gives you access to thousands of links for all the different kinds of sports. And I mean all! You will be shocked to see how many different varieties of sport that SportsDevil covers. It gives you several internet steaming sites to where you can view sporting events (it seems that it gets updated with new streaming sites every month or so).

There are 6 streaming sites with live sports at the moment which you can choose from, hopefully this list will get bigger to give you more and more options. Not every stream will work, but you normally have 10+ links per streaming of whatever sporting event you choose, and 1 of them will work for you! In my experience, SportsDevil really stands up to its name and I can’t go without this on my Apple TV 2.

Allows users to sync movies and television shows from the IceFilms add-on to their internal library

Offers the ability to refresh your library in intervals that you decide.

It offers filters so that you can scan for all movies released after a certain date… allowing to you have access to all movies released since 2003, should you desire to.

The possibilities are endless, making this one of my favorite add-ons.

Download & Support:

IceLibrary Development and Releases come directly from xbmchub.com, via its development team. This add-ons has gone from a one man team, to a community driven project. You can download IceLibrary addon from here.

Access to all Hulu + content, for users who have signed up for the service.

This add-ons comes with the unique ability to add shows and movies, from Hulu, to your XBMC library. This enables you to do a lot of cool stuff!

Allows control of the amount of ads, or pre-roles, displayed.

Download & Support:

HULU ADD-ON Development and Releases come directly from forum.xbmc.org, via its developer bluecop. This developer is known for having some AMAZING addons in his repos! You can download Hulu addon from here.

Though this add-on offers both television and movies. It is known for its movies.

Latest movie release are updated to FastPassTV at a rate that is second to none. If there is something you gotta see NOW(!) FastPassTV is a good way to go.

Download & Support:

FastPassTv’s Development and Releases come directly from xbmchub.com, via its developer, who is also a developer for IceFilms. Its actual creator is always open to help with problems.Fast Pass TV addon from here.

Combines live tv streams with a handful of 24 hour streams of shows like Friends, King of Queens, and more.

24 movie channels including Starz.

Live streaming sports

Download & Support:

LiveTV’s Development and Releases come directly from forum.xbmc.org, via this add-ons developer. Its actual creator is always open to help and can be found either at xbmc.org or xbmchub.com. You can dowlnoad Live TV addon from here.

IceFilms is back and ready to increase the “awesome sauce” of your Apple TV! If you are one of our many fans with XBMC installed on their Apple TVs, you are likely aware of the fact that XBMC has always offered the ability to install third party add-ons. Sadly, this past December, the official XBMC Team took the odd step of closing access to some of XBMC’s most popular add-ons.

Just when it appeared as though these amazing tools would disappear, a new home arrived to connect developers, users, and add-on development. Since moving to XBMCHUB.COM the IceFilms team has been hard at work expanding the abilities and functionalities of it’s add-on and now it is ready, once again, for the prime time.

There are a few things that must be in place prior to installing the latest build:

So you caved in and bought the new 1080pApple TV 3 and were horrified to discover that you cannot jailbreak it yet. Perhaps you were fortunate enough to find your older Apple TV (1st or 2nd gen) sitting in a dark damp corner of your closet underneath your old PlayStation. Regardless of which device you are fortunate enough to have, you will need one simple skill in order to take full advantage of your XBMC experience.

XBMC comes with the unique ability to install extra tools within the confines of its system. This means that once XBMC is installed you can add new add-ons/plugins to your Apple TV in order to give it some new features such as streaming live television, streaming movies from external websites, Pandora, Sports Channels, and much more.

Installing, and using, XBMC add-ons and plugins is a very simple process that can sometimes intimidate newbies, or first time users. The good news is that, by the end of this post, you will be able to install, uninstall, and find any XBMC tools you want within the confines of your Apple TV (1 or 2). Before we begin, let’s go over what we need:

Computer

Add-On/Plugin Source

Apple TV (1st or 2nd-generation)

XBMC does come with many add-ons/plugins preinstalled in its database for you to install and play with. If you would like to use these specific tools simply skip ahead to STEP #9. If, on the other hand, you would like to add specialized add-ons/plugins such as IceFilms, NaviX, SuperTV, FastPassTV, 1Channel, or even Watchseries you will need to follow these instructions from beginning to end.

The first step would be to find the add-ons you want to install. You can search XBMC’s forums for things like skins, movie scrapers, music add-ons, picture add-ons, and more. Once you find what you want… download the .zip file to your computer and remember file location you save it to.

The next step would be downloading an SSH client onto your computer. This tool will enable you to browse the Apple TV menu from your computer.

Once you install these tools, you will need to connect the SSH client to your Apple TV:

1. Open XBMC on your Apple TV and navigate from your Home Screen to Settings > System Information. You need to locate and take note of your system’s IP address:

2. You now need to open your SSH Client. You will likely be met with either an option to open a Connection, if so select this option, or a group of boxes requiring input. Fill out the boxes using following:

At the top you will likely see a drop down menu that says “File Transfer Protocol.” Here you will need to select the option that says “SFTP” or “SSH”

Server: Here you need to enter the IP address of your Apple TV that we located earlier.

Username: root

Password: alpine

3. Click on the “Connect” button and you will find yourself inside the File System of your Apple TV.

4. Next you will need to navigate to the location that XBMC associates as its Home Page. This location is found @ “/User”

5. Now we need to find the add-on that you download earlier in this tutorial. Once you have located the file, you will need to drag it from your computer into this file location as seen below. In this case I have copied XBMC’s repo from my desktop into the file location provided.

Now that we have copied all desired items from the computer into the ATV we are now ready to put down the computer and pick up the ATV remote. The rest of these steps take place inside of your XBMC installation:

Installing Add-ons & Plugins

1. Open XBMC on your Apple TV and navigate from your Home Screen to the System Menu. From there you should see menu options similar to what is shown below.